New Horizons in Management series

This comprehensive book describes how proactive behavior, driven by a proactive personality, contributes to individual and organizational productivity. A consolidation of available research on the nature of proactivity in the workplace, this book explores methods of helping workers themselves become more effective, and managers understand effective ways of fostering this kind of thinking and behavior.

Chapter 5: The proactive personality and career success

Monograph Chapter

Extract

Proactive personality contributes to high job performance and satisfaction, and organizational success. The focus of this chapter is how being proactive also contributes to an individual’s career success, as illustrated by the story of Los Angeles attorney Darrell D. Miller. After graduating in 1985 from a conservatory of music, and performing around the world in various music productions, Miller decided to study law. He said he had an epiphany thinking about the information superhighway because for him it represented an entirely new paradigm. “Where most Americans had grown up with three primary distribution channels of broadcast television content, we were now going to have a lot of choices,” he explains. “I thought either I can be part of the distribution platform or I can be part of the content creation mechanism for that platform. And I chose to go where the content is being created and to build a reputation of representing content creators.” After graduating from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1990, Miller moved to Los Angeles and worked at a law firm focusing on civil litigation and corporate law. Six years later Miller opened his own law firm serving as a counsel for a variety of film and entertainment projects. His reputation as a strategic entertainment attorney grew. Miller then became a partner in another law firm and co-chair of the Entertainment and Sports lawyer practice.

You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article.

Elgaronline requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals. Please login through your library system or with your personal username and password on the homepage.